Torres-Marín Jorge, Navarro-Carrillo Ginés, Eid Michael, Carretero-Dios Hugo
Department of Research Methods in Behavioral Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
J Happiness Stud. 2022;23(6):2541-2561. doi: 10.1007/s10902-022-00500-x. Epub 2022 Mar 5.
Existing psychological research has long considered humor as a useful strategy for individuals in coping with adverse circumstances and life stressors. However, empirical studies are called for to better understand the role of humor in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a community sample of 527 Spanish adults, we investigated the associations between humor styles, perceived threat from COVID-19, funniness of COVID-19 memes, and individuals' affective mood. Data were collected during the third week of lockdown in Spain (from 26 to 31 March 2020). Our results suggest that intrapsychic humor styles were associated with better coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling showed that self-enhancing and aggressive humor styles were related to perceiving COVID-19 as less psychologically threatening, which, in turn, was associated with a greater perceived funniness of COVID-19 memes, thus predicting higher levels of happiness. Interestingly, the opposite pattern of connections was found for self-defeating humor. These findings suggest that humor styles aimed at boosting one's own self, irrespective of their potentially lighter or darker nature, may contribute to alleviating adverse psychological consequences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
长期以来，现有的心理学研究一直将幽默视为个体应对逆境和生活压力源的一种有用策略。然而，需要实证研究来更好地理解幽默在应对新冠疫情中的作用。在一个由527名西班牙成年人组成的社区样本中，我们调查了幽默风格、对新冠疫情的感知威胁、新冠疫情相关表情包的趣味性与个体情绪之间的关联。数据收集于西班牙封锁的第三周（2020年3月26日至31日）。我们的研究结果表明，内心幽默风格与更好地应对新冠疫情有关。结构方程模型显示，自我提升型和攻击型幽默风格与将新冠疫情视为心理威胁较小有关，而这又与更高地感知新冠疫情相关表情包的趣味性有关，进而预示着更高的幸福感。有趣的是，自我挫败型幽默呈现出相反的关联模式。这些发现表明，旨在提升自我的幽默风格，无论其潜在的轻松或严肃性质如何，都可能有助于减轻新冠疫情引发的不良心理后果。
